Unpopular opinion: killing off the dog in the movie is fine, and here is why
Everyone always says you can rewatch Old Yeller if you just skip the ending, but I think cutting the ending actually makes the movie worse. I tried it with my kid brother last Friday at our place in Akron and he was bored the whole time because the story has nowhere to land. That final scene is the entire point of the film, and softening it just turns a hard story into a flat one. If you were rewriting it, would you really let the dog live, or would you end it some other way?